Time to make agreement official with one clean pair: grand/grande and petit/petite. With a feminine noun the adjective takes an -e, and — the part respellings make audible — the final consonant wakes up: grand is grah(n) but grande is grah(n)d. Small rule, big listening payoff.
| French | English | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| grand / grande | big, tall | grah(n) / grah(n)d |
| petit / petite | small | puh-TEE / puh-TEET |
| un grand chiengrand and petit go BEFORE the noun — the exception pair | a big dog | uh(n) grah(n) SHYA(n) |
| une petite souris | a small mouse | ewn puh-teet soo-REE |
| La table est grande. | The table is big. | lah tahbl eh GRAH(n)D |
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
Adding -e for feminine turns on the silent consonant: puh-TEE becomes puh-TEET. Say each pair aloud until the difference is automatic — your ear is learning to detect gender.
Colors follow the noun (Lesson 14), but grand and petit go in front: un petit chat noir — a small black cat, both rules in one phrase. A handful of very common adjectives behave this way; these two are the ones you need now.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.
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